How to Make Healthy Food Taste Incredible

 When you think of the word “healthy food” what do you usually think of? For many, it’s usually salads, unseasoned chicken, celery sticks, or apples. While it’s true that these are healthy, it doesn’t automatically mean that healthy food must be boring!  Healthy foods can taste great, vegetables can taste great, they just all need to have better ways that they’re prepared.

Healthy foods can taste incredible with the right spices, being cooked the right way, and having other foods that complement them. It may take some time, but once you learn to cook healthy, you won’t want to go back. Cooking and seasoning healthy foods is a great way to improve yourself as a chef, but they also have the ability to make you feel good. These are some fantastic tips for getting your healthy food to taste great. 

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Why exactly do healthy foods tend to taste bad?

While many tend to move towards IV therapy for getting healthy, there are plenty of other options for transforming into a more healthy lifestyle and this includes better eating choices. If you grew up hating vegetables, then chances are it’s due to your parents not cooking them right.  Boiling vegetables is one of the worst ways to cook a vegetable, it zaps out any good flavor and it’s left all mushy.

Another reason could be the fact that the vegetable was overcooked or it lacked any seasoning. If you go to a restaurant and you find yourself enjoying the food there, even the healthy foods, that’s one way to prove that you like vegetables when they’re cooked the right way. Another reason is the fact that they’re not cooked at all. Many may like a certain vegetable when cooked, but it doesn’t taste the same when raw. 

What’s not to like about healthy foods?

How is your diet? What does it mostly consist of? If your meal is skipping out on healthy fruits, veggies, protein, whole grains, then chances are you’re mostly consuming junk food. Processed junk food is mainly filled with fats, sugars, oils, and lots of salt. Junk food tends to have little nutritional value. While they may taste good, they’re usually not good for the body, even if some are made from fruits and vegetables.  Junk food is pretty bland tasting without all of the highly processed chemicals, including the salts and sugars.

If you’re only used to eating highly processed foods, then it can be understood as to why you’re not crazy about vegetables or healthy foods in general. These don't contain a lot of salt, sugar, and other chemicals needed to make them taste good.  Knowing that it could just be something that takes a bit of time to grow accustomed to. But it primarily means that you just need to spend some time figuring out how you best prefer your prepared food to taste.

How to make healthy food taste great

Have you ever watched any cooking shows, YouTube videos, or even just when on apps like Instagram and thought “That looks delicious, I wish I could cook like that”? Well, the good news is, that you certainly can! When it comes to cooking, it’s a fun science experiment that you get to taste.  It’s something that takes a bit of time to learn, but once you get the hang of it, cooking becomes far easier and far tastier. One of the first things you’ll want to think about is buying spices in bulk. This is going to give you the chance to have multiple spices to choose from, but you won't have to worry about running out.  

How to make veggies taste great

Veggies are the main healthy food that is recognized for being difficult to taste great. When it comes to grains, proteins, and even fruits, it’s far easier to have them taste great. But with veggies, if they’re overcooked they can have the ability to taste awful. Even if some vegetables are not cooked at all, or not enough, they can taste bad as well. 

While each vegetable has its own way it can be best prepared so it can taste good, you’ll just want to experiment or even watch some cooking shows to get some inspiration. This can even include the type of pan that you’re using.  Here are some helpful tips for cooking up some of the tastiest vegetables.

• Buy high-quality ingredients, if your vegetables are old or not in the best condition, that’s going to heavily affect the flavor.  Try looking into purchases in-season food or even frozen veggies.

• Season your food, you can season it with spices, citrus, vinegar, garlic, onions, herbs, sauces, anything that will make you like it

• Don’t overcook, it’s important to not overcook your food. Not only are you taking out nutritional value, but it tastes bad. Light blanching your food can work great, same for frying your veggies on a pan.

• Roast, toasting veggies can really help bring out more concentrated flavors you didn’t know were there. This is perfect for broccoli, peppers, kale, and cabbage.

• Sprinkle, look into sprinkling seeds, nuts, cheese, herbs, or anything else to your liking on top of the food.

How to make lean protein taste great

Whether you’re a meat-eater or not, you need to have some lean protein in your diet. This can be tofu, poultry, red meat, or fish. It’s true that red meat is the least healthy of meat and it shouldn’t be eaten too often. There are still options for eating tofu, poultry, and fish as these are far more healthy for the body. Some fantastic tips for making your lean protein taste better are:

• Moisten the protein, poultry and fish are very dry compared to other meats. You can moisten them by adding flavorful liquids such as soy sauce, fish sauce, stock, or even citrus.

• Marinating or even bringing your lean protein for several hours or even overnight can allow it to get fantastic flavors that otherwise it wouldn’t have.

• Rubs, while rubs are mostly known for ribs or other BBQ-related foods, they can be used any time of any lean protein (including tofu). You can use a paste such as mustard or yogurt and apply a variety of spices to it.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to making exceptionally good food. It’s all about experimenting.